How to Track Impediments in VSTS

Note: While this post discusses impediments in VSTS, everything mentioned can be applied to TFS as well.

Visual Studio Team Services (or VSTS) has great tools to support Scrum teams. The product owner can use the backlog and board to track the progress of individual teams or the entire product, at the Product Backlog Item (PBI) level, at the Feature level or even the Epic level, throughout the entire lifetime of the product. The developers can track the progress that they are making within the sprint, and see how their work (tasks) fit into the larger picture, by associating them with the PBIs that make up the product.

But what about the Scrum Masters? What tools do they have in VSTS to help them track their work and their progress?

What are Impediments?

According to Scrum.org’s official Scrum guide, one of the services that a Scrum Master provides to the development team, is the removal of impediments to the team’s progress. An impediment is anything that causes a developer to be unable to make progress towards completing the sprint’s goal. Whenever a developer has a problem that cannot be solved within the scope of the team, it is the Scrum Master’s responsibility to remove it.

Impediments in VSTS

Visual Studio Team Services has a work item type dedicated towards tracking impediments, and progress on their removal. For projects using the Scrum Template, this work item type is called an impediment. For projects using the Agile or CMMI templates, this is called an Issue. Regardless of template, they both serve the same purpose: They mention a problem, and their state machine tracks the progress.

Unfortunately, impediments and issues do not show up in VSTS’ backlogs or boards. Those are designed for tracking progress on the delivery of the product, and the Impediment work item type is not included. That said, how should a Scrum Master and the Scrum team track these impediments, especially in large distributed projects, where face-to-face communication and jotting a note on a pad is not a viable solution?